Mt. Huangshan, Anhui, China

5Daniel C 5:00 PM Jun 15, 2020

Breath taking views
To get here you won't be able to get a train since it's near a small town and not a large city so you'll need to either get a 5 hour bus from Nanjing or a 2 hour bus from Hangzhou. There are plenty of hotels where you can spend the night because you'll need as much time as possible to explore the mountain because it's not just one mountain but a huge range of mountains that would take more than a day to explore so don't waste time. If you'd like you can walk up the mountain but it's much easier to grab a tourism bus up to the cable car, hopefully you don't have a fear of heights because you'll be on there for quite a while. On the bus and cable car ride the views are incredible but once you reach the top and can explore the different peaks, the views there are indescribable; while there are plenty of beautiful photos, they don't capture the scale. You can stand on several peaks, look out across several miles and see incredible cliffs and mountain tops. If you want to explore the full range you can sleep in a hostel on the mountain top but make sure you come here before everyone else because China is always packed and you'll have to wait hours if you dont come early.

4Mir-HW 5:00 PM Oct 5, 2021

Great view, be prepared for lots of stairs and paved paths.
We visited Huangshan mountain during the Golden Week, when it get super crowded. We started from the town of Hangkou. If you happen to stay in the town of Tangkou, give local guide and driver Simon a call. We met him by coincidence. He used to be a guide and is now providing driver service, growing up in the area he took us to some very nice places nearby. And he speaks perfect English so a great help. He made some great recommendations about the best entrance to go up Huangshan in the busy days of the Golden Week. WeChat ID cjc5626316 We wanted to hike up the western steps but Simon advised us to take the lesser known North Entrance. This was indeed much more quiet, downside is that it was 1 hour drive from Tangkou, but certainly worth it. the walk up is beautiful, but be prepared: instead of hiking you find yourself walking stairs the whole way. From the north entrance it’s about 7-8 km to walk up, and the stairs get pretty steep and and some point we were quite done with it. But the views are good. Once up on the mountain we stayed 2 nights at XiHai hotel, situated a bit towards the north. Still at the top it’s all steps up and down, don;t expect some good hiking trails to take you off the paved paths and stairs. We tried to walk the West Sea Canyon route as we were told this is less crowded. But during Golden Week, everything simply gets crowded and the small steps and paths on this route were packed. Views again are great. For sunrise and sunset, when it’s crowded, it actually pays to find a place that does not have a perfect view. We did a sunset at the start of West Sea Canyon, where you do not really see the sun set (it sets behind a mountain) but the colors are gorgeous and the setting is so serene compared to the hot spots where there are tons of people trying to take photo’s. We did the same for sunrise and had a nice experience this way, with more peace and quiet (if this is what you like of course. For the perfect picture you best go to a top) We stayed 2 nights on the mountain, which was really more than enough time. We had some time to relax as well, but if you are pressed for time you can do 1 night.